Tag: happier

Since I have lived the largest part of my life as a scientist I have thoroughly come to believe that when facts clash seriously with beliefs then beliefs need to be modified. I know the current Oval Office occupant doesn’t believe in facts, to him everything he doubts must be fake news and sadly his loyal base blindly accepts that line. That is one of the scariest things for me about these times. But that is not the main point of this post. Here are some words to ponder:

They are facts. Nothing more and nothing less. Just facts. It is a fact that people are happier in social democracies. It is a fact that people are richer, wealthier, closer, live longer, saner, better lives, in nearly every regard. There is nothing subjective or unknown about that statement, and so it is not a belief in any way whatsoever. Do you see the difference here — between fact and belief? You might think that I’m splitting hairs — but I think that both the future and the greatest lesson in human history that you probably don’t know lie right here.

I really don’t understand how socialism has gotten such a bad connotation in the US. I guess it has something to do with Soviet-style communism which was really in no way socialism. It was just a tyrant trying to take control of a country by selling the populace a defective scheme. Much like Hitler and some during our current times are doing.

Social democracies are quite a different thing and those are the versions of socialism that are around today in much of the world. But, social democracies almost always implies an opposition to the unregulated workings of a capitalist State. Most of the countries referred to by the quote above are Scandinavian or western European. Poll after poll shows them to have happier, saner and longer lives than we do.